Read on Twitter
This article on SF language training is problematic. The authors continuously cite a Small Wars Journal article from 2014 (7 years ago) to claim that SF language skills have atrophied. Nowhere do they mention how USASOC and 1st SFC already revamped language standards years ago. https://twitter.com/WarOnTheRocks/status/1389791999633600518">https://twitter.com/WarOnTheR...
Around 2012, the command put out that in order to continue qualifying for advanced schools and promotion, Green Berets needed to keep their language certification current every year. Language labs popped up at all the Groups. Instructors were hired.
Teams started building language training into their annual training schedule. Those standards still exist. Are GBs required to be fluent in complex languages like Arabic or Mandarin Chinese? Of course not. Suave operators speaking complex dialects fluently is movie stuff.
Remember too that 5th Group went into Afghanistan in late 2001 not speaking the language - but still managed to get the job done in one of the closest examples to actual UW we& #39;ve had. Ditto for 10th Group in Northern Iraq in 2003.
Phil Buswell also wrote his masters thesis in 2011 on this very same subject: https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10945/10750
The">https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10... language discussion isn& #39;t anything new - the force has been constantly working to improve it for a decade now. Teams spend weeks in the language lab every year.
The">https://calhoun.nps.edu/handle/10... language discussion isn& #39;t anything new - the force has been constantly working to improve it for a decade now. Teams spend weeks in the language lab every year.
The authors also repeat the claim that we& #39;ve abandoned our advisory mission in favor of high speed direct action. They hand wave the inconvenient fact that the majority of SF missions are "FID" (kinda) by saying those "FID" missions focus on "high speed direct action."
But direct action is primarily what we train our partner forces on. That& #39;s the whole point of an ODA mastering those combat skills - to go share them with a partner force. And it& #39;s why ODAs often revert to direct action missions (with partner forces) in a kinetic scenario.
I don& #39;t disagree with their recommendation to get our 18Ds certified as Physician Assistants. But I& #39;d welcome them to actually see what an 18D can do before claiming that any of our missions require them to get that certification.
Our 18Ds are constantly refining their skills, and are damn near trauma surgeons already. No one I would trust more to get me to the OR table. The PA qualification is more for them to ensure their own opportunities as they leave the force. They don& #39;t need it to be effective.
Finally, the notion that ODAs are going to go operate covertly behind enemy lines undetected is again, very problematic. My entire masters thesis looked at how problematic SF& #39;s then-obsession with UW was.
The authors didn& #39;t dive deep into this one, but there& #39;s a lot to unpack on ODAs trying to operate behind Russian lines or in Chinese occupied territories. Again, the force has been looking at this for a LONG time. It& #39;s not something we& #39;re just ignoring.
Spoiler alert - operating behind enemy lines in the 21st century looks a lot different than the concepts we had in the 1950s. It& #39;s a whole different ballgame, and in many cases, not realistic.
Our 1950s force (10th Group especially) also had a LOT of Lodge Act soldiers. Eastern Europeans who fled Soviet occupation and gained American citizenship by joining the Army (and then being funneled into SF). Lot different operating in a country when you& #39;re from that country.
All of this could probably have been discovered had the authors taken the time to chat with current members of the force, and done some quick research on what a standard year& #39;s training schedule looks like for an ODA.
Some of the biggest myths about SOF spread when people don& #39;t take the time to actually talk to folks in the force. Academia has a valuable role in contributing to how we (the force) look at the world, educate ourselves, and train to fight.
